Can you remember this feeling, when you were younger and you used to watch your favorite TV show, movie or just listen to a great song and think – what would it be like to actually meet those human beings behind the characters or the lyrics? Were you imagining how you would spend a day with them, what would you ask them… Have you ever tried to imaginAction it?

Sometimes while looking for the speakers to talk at our event we get the same feeling. We are inspired by their ideas, their passion or their commitment and then we try to reach out to them. For several years we have been trying to invite Emma Watson to speak at TEDxDonauinsel event.

We admire Emma for her glorious acting, for the way she handled being in the spotlight from a young age on, and most of all for being such a brave, sophisticated and empowering woman who uses her voice to create awareness for gender equality. With the movement HEforSHE, Emma is calling for gender solidarity and a new approach to gender equality issues.

But how to get in touch with a famous actress and human rights activist like Emma Watson? We tried to contact her in every possible way – we used social media, mail and every other communication channel we managed to think of. However, we never managed to reach her. Taking up some desperate actions such as throwing our business cards at Emma while she is on the red carpet did not seem like the most charming way to attract her attention, so we decided to take a different approach. We came up with the idea to ask her to “be our guest” by putting together a video and making the internet (and hopefully Emma) listen to us singing.

Besides explaining who we are, what we do and why we really want Emma to speak at our event we also gathered all of our musical talent and courage and performed Be Our Guest song from Emma’s latest movie Beauty and the Beast on a sunny Sunday afternoon on the Danube island while curious pedestrians were watching. The scenes featuring our team members were filmed in various locations in Vienna, such as the Impact Hub, the Donauinsel and even our living rooms.